1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal provided with a voice communication function and a data communication function and an automatic answering method by the same portable communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, widely prevails a portable communication terminal such as a portable telephone and a PHS (Personal Handyphone System). A portable communication terminal is very convenient for a user to communicate at any place, while there are many cases of hesitating about the voice communication using a portable communication terminal at a place crowded with people. When receiving a call, there is the case where it may happen that a user cannot answer the call in the voice communication.
When receiving a voice call under circumstances where voice communication is impossible or difficult, it is difficult for a user having received the call to explain his or her own situation incapable of the voice communication to a sending party. In the current communication service using a portable communication terminal, when a user having received a call cannot perform voice communication, a calling party knows the situation of a called party through voice announcement previously prepared in a base station providing the same service.
In a method of using such prepared announcement, however, since the content of a message to be sent is fixed, a calling party cannot know the detailed situation of a user at a called party. Therefore, the calling party cannot take proper measures even when the proper measures depending on the situation of a user at the called party are possible such as making a call again or waiting for a return from a user at the called party.
More concretely, as the situations where a user at a called party cannot answer a call, there are various cases including a case where a user cannot operate a portable communication terminal because of being far away from it (user absence situation) and a case where a user cannot operate a portable communication terminal or communicate with it because of being at a conference or driving a car (response impossible situation). If a detailed message toward a calling party can be set depending on the situation of a user at a called party, for example, like a message to the effect that a user at a called party will return a call as soon as he or she comes back in the case where there is no knowing when he or she will come back, or a message to the effect that a user at a called party wants a calling party to make a call again at a specified time in the case where the finishing time of a conference is clear and he or she knows the possible time of communication, the calling party can save the troublesome measures.
As mentioned above, according to the communication service system using the conventional portable communication terminal, when a user having received a call cannot perform voice communication, a means for a calling party's knowing the situation of a user at a called party is only a message of the fixed content prepared in advance. Therefore, a calling party cannot take proper measures efficiently.